# Carved Wolf # Introduction I wanted to carve or a fox or a wolf in walnut. After searching a lot of drawing and images, I wanted to do a running wolf. This project took me a lot of time. I started in February 2023, and finish in November 2023. Of course, I was not working on it everyday. Because it took so much time to get the main shape ready, I felt a little bit discouraged and stopped for a while. ## Table of Content - [From a block to a Rough Shape](#from-a-block-to-a-rough-shape) - [Smoothing](#from-rough-to-smooth) - [Releasing the wolf](#jiggsaw) - [State before Oiling](#state-before-oiling) - [Oiling](#oiling) - [Final result](#final-result) # From a Block to a Rough Shape I started drawing the wolf on each face of the wood: ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/001_big.jpg) And tried to remove wood where the paw where not. ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/003_big.jpg) ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/002_big.jpg) ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/005_big.jpg) Also, I removed the material bellow the tail. ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/004_big.jpg) After some time, I start dividing the space in two: the left part and the right part. ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/011_big.jpg) ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/014_big.jpg) I started moving to the rough shape, where my drawing lines would disapear of the block. ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/016_big.jpg) And draw the silhouette from the top. ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/019_big.jpg) I kept the big block on the left because I did not have a jiggsaw at hand. ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/020_big.jpg) After some refinement, the members start becoming independent from each others ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/024_big.jpg) ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/031_big.jpg) It looks more like a pig rather like a wolf. ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/029_big.jpg) # From Rough to Smooth (Break between February and may) I stop taking photograph for a while. Nevertheless, the shape progressed a lot. Here, I stopped using Chisels and moved to knife. Knifes leads to smoother shapes while being slower. ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/032_big.jpg) ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/036_big.jpg) ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/037_big.jpg) ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/038_big.jpg) From the top: ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/040_big.jpg) If we wet the wood to see how it would looks like later, we get ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/044_big.jpg) ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/045_big.jpg) Wetting the wood reharse the wood fibers. This is useful when sanding, to wash the wood and sand the fibers that go out: ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/048_big.jpg) ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/050_big.jpg) # Jiggsaw (after a few month, did nothing between June and October) I finally got my jigsaw !! I started cutting a V shape to extract the tail. ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/056_big.jpg) After a few minutes, I finally released the wolf. ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/057_big.jpg) Now, I have a wolf-hammertailed: ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/058_big.jpg) ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/059_big.jpg) Now, this is much easier to manipulate the wolf: the square shape hurted the hand when manipulating it. It removed the extra wood with a knife. ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/060_big.jpg) And start modeling the tail. ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/061_big.jpg) ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/062_big.jpg) Now, the wolf looks svelt: ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/066_big.jpg) ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/065_big.jpg) However, there is still the head to do. ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/069_big.jpg) ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/068_big.jpg) Because I want to carve in the round (and making realistic details is hard), the ears are just holes in the head. ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/073_big.jpg) ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/074_big.jpg) Wetting test (again): ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/078_big.jpg) ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/079_big.jpg) I updated the shape again a bit, did the paws, and sanded everything. # State Before Oiling Front ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/084_big.jpg) ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/089_big.jpg) From top ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/086_big.jpg) Back ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/087_big.jpg) Side ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/088_big.jpg) # Oiling Now, it is time for the oil bath. I use neat foot oil, as it is cheap and I do not plan using the wolf other than for embellishment. I let it one night in the bag with oil, but this is not an official recipe. Some advice just a few minutes or using a paintbrush to apply the oil. ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/094_big.jpg) After, I let it dry during the day (the wood will absorb the oil). Later in the day with natural light. ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/117_big.jpg) And then, I clean it with absorbing paper. ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/119_big.jpg) ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/118_big.jpg) # Final Result ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/122_big.jpg) ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/123_big.jpg) ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/124_big.jpg) ![](/assets/images/carving_wolf/125_big.jpg)